SF Gate - Mill Valley floral designer gets new digs

Like other floral designers, Gayle Nicoletti does not enjoy much rest in the weeks leading up to Valentine's Day.

"It's a big holiday, and it is a little stressful ordering ahead of time, because you want the most beautiful and gorgeous flowers when every other florist is trying to get the same thing," says Nicoletti. "You just have to plan ahead so everything can be processed, cleaned and arranged. It's quite a process, but it's exciting."

SF Gate - Marin entrepreneur builds historic guideboat replicas

It's a small slice of 19th century U.S. history and ingenuity, tucked away fittingly in a historic lumber yard in Mill Valley but remade for the modern day.

Inside a new specialty retailer sits a replica of an 1892 Adirondacks guideboat, one of the fastest fixed-seat rowboats ever made, and used for transport and hunting before recreation and sport.

SF Business Times - Restoration Hardware, YouTube founder team up to launch boat company

While Restoration Hardware founder Stephen Gordon retired from the Corte Madera-based retailer nearly a decade ago to become CEO of Sundance, he wasn’t ready to leave the merchandising business altogether.

Now, in partnership with YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley, Gordon is using his specialty retail background to build and sell specialty boats, among other things.

Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce - Guideboat Co. ribbon cutting - Mill Valley

Marin IJ - Lib at Large: Restoration Hardware founder’s new venture opens at historic Mill Valley Lumber

WHEN THE NEW owners of historic Mill Valley Lumber said they wanted to preserve the past while looking to the future, they pretty much described the business philosophy of Restoration Hardware founder Stephen Gordon, who became an entrepreneurial superstar by making old things new again.

Now the man who built a phenomenally successful career marketing modern versions of classic American period hardware and home furnishings has quietly launched his new venture, Guideboat Company, in the former lumber company’s cluster of rustic buildings, a redwood-shaded Mill Valley landmark for more than 120 years.

Mill Valley Herald - Lumber yard sold Mill Valley couple are new owners of historic creek-side property

The new owners of the 120-year-old Mill Valley Lumber company have learned: If the gates are open, customers come in.

Mill Valley residents Matt and Jan Mathews closed on the property last week and hope to continue the lumber and hardware use of the business. To the relief of many in town, the couple has no plans for building condos on the site.

“We’ve met with the planning department and talked with them. We definitely don’t want to tear anything down and turn it into condos,” Jan Matthews said.